Kochs take on Hillary

The Koch brothers organization on Friday blasted Hillary Clinton’s support for the Export-Import Bank, previewing a potentially rancorous and expensive fight between the leading Democratic presidential candidate and the deepest pocketed network of donors on the right.

The issue of reauthorizing the once little-known export credit agency is getting a lot of attention on the campaign trail, with the bank’s charter set to expire June 30 and Republican presidential candidates and members of Congress under pressure from influential conservative groups including those in the Koch network to oppose it.

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It’s a fight that plays into the sweet spot of both — Clinton and the Koch network.

For Clinton, who is still trying to win over the Elizabeth Warren wing of the party, it offers her the chance to energize wary liberals by going on the offense against the Kochs, a favorite boogeyman of the left.

For the Kochs and their network, it’s a chance to elevate a pet issue while engaging in the presidential race at a time when its legions of rich donors remain divided over which GOP candidate to back.

Freedom Partners, the umbrella group overseeing the Koch network, in a statement released Friday and promoted on social media asserted that Clinton’s support for reauthorizing the bank draws “a clear line between her and the Republican presidential field and push(es) the Ex-Im Bank into the national dialogue.” Freedom Partners also linked Clinton’s support to donations to her family’s foundation from beneficiaries of the bank, while the Koch group’s spokesman James Davis called Clinton’s position “a case study in cronyism and corporate welfare. Congress should reject Mrs. Clinton’s Ex-Im position and end this culture of corruption, and start fighting on behalf of hard-working taxpayers.”

Clinton during a Friday afternoon roundtable at the Smuttynose Brewery Co. in New Hampshire, criticized Republicans for targeting the bank and risking up to 164,000 jobs supported through its programs at the behest of “the tea party and talk radio.”

Her campaign and the outside groups supporting it embraced the attack as a chance to take on the Koch network directly. American Bridge, a super PAC aligned with Clinton that has led the liberal assault on the Kochs, issued a statement accusing Clintons’ prospective GOP presidential rivals of caving to pressure from the Kochs to oppose Ex-Im re-authorization “to stay in the Kochs’ good graces.” And Clinton campaign spokesman Jesse Ferguson responded in a statement: “Hillary Clinton just made the case that Republicans were jeopardizing small business exports by blocking the Export-Import Bank to please their tea party base when an overwhelming share of the bank’s transactions support American small businesses. And then a leading tea party organization came out attacking her for it. Enough said.”

Democrats in the past couple elections spent significant time and money trying to make a campaign issue of the unprecedented political and public policy spending by the industrialist billionaires Charles and David Koch and the donors in their network, which they allege created the tea party protest movement in 2009. While the Koch attacks didn’t seem to pay dividends at the ballot box, Friday’s back-and-forth suggests that Clinton and her allies may be reaching for the same playbook.

The Koch network has become increasingly influential in recent years, and is expected to play a major role in 2016. Freedom Partners didn’t actually form until late 2011 and since then it has overseen a vast expansion of the Koch network to include scores of wealthy conservative donors funding groups pushing primarily fiscal conservative initiatives and messaging. The network helmed by Freedom Partners intends to spend $889 million in the run-up to the 2016 election through electoral and advocacy efforts.

Freedom Partners in a Web video last month signaled its desire to take on Clinton over her support for the bank. It distinguished her position on the issue with those of the leading GOP contenders. The group has spent the past few months pressuring the GOP’s presidential prospects to support its economic policy agenda, which includes expiration of the Export-Import Bank’s charter.